Cambridge Startup Pronutria Nabs $28.3 Million From Five Investors
February 18, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CAMBRIDGE, MASS – Biologic startup Pronutria Biosciences netted more than $28 million from five investors, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show.
The SEC filing dated Feb. 17 shows the company secured $28,299,993 in financing.
The company launched in 2011 with an aim to unlock homeostatic biology. Pronutria produces oral biologics that “liberate precise, temporally controlled amino acid ratios to restore imbalances in amino acids that are at the heart of important diseases including cancers, rare genetic diseases and disorders affecting the musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, neurological, metabolic and autoimmune systems,” according to the company website.
The manufactured biologics are aimed at restoring cellular homeostasis and subsequently improving health. Homeostasis is a cell’s ability to internally regulate stability without regard to external conditions.
On its website the company claims it has a proprietary library with more than one billion proteins and the capability to “select, validate and express individual proteins with precise amino acid and biophysical profiles.”
Pronutria was founded by Flagship VentureLabs with an initial funding of $10 million and additional funding of $12.25 million.
In 2014 the company announced two clinical trials evaluating its lead ProNutrein product candidates for muscle and metabolism impacts on volunteers of appropriate ages. The ProNutrein platform looks to identify and develop protein pharmaconutrients, protein nutrients identified in food with beneficial impact in many areas of human health, including muscle, metabolic and gastrointestinal health.
Peter Mueller, the company’s chief scientific officer, said amino acids are fundamental in the regulation of cellular processes that are necessary to maintain good health. When those amino acids are “maladapted,” Mueller said that can jeopardize health with a wide range of illnesses. Before joining Pronutria in December 2014, Mueller served as chief science officer for Vertex Pharmaceuticals , where he worked on drug development programs, with emphasis in hepatitis C, cystic fibrosis, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, cancer and neurological diseases.
Also in December the company was approved for to U.S. patents for its two leading biologics platforms, PN-107 and PN-340. The patents are valid to at least 2033, and “specifically claim methods of treatment and prevention of muscle loss in a wide class of sarcopenia and cachexia conditions including anorexia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and compositions comprising nutritive proteins having high solubility and digestibility, with desired ratios of leucine and other essential amino acids,” according to a company press release.
Pronutria's CEO is Robert Connelly, formerly the CEO of Domantis, which was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2006 and Pulmatrix, a maker of inhaled antibiotics.
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